Last June 16 died in Cali the prominent mathematician and Marxist intellectual Guillermo Restrepo Sierra. The community of the Universidad del Valle is still mourning because of this painful loss: for years, this professor has encouraged social struggles and academic debate in the largest university of South Western Colombia. From the distance, this is my humble tribute to him.

Guillermo was born in Ebéjico (Antioquia) and studied Mathematics at the National University, Bogotá. His graduate studies and first academic experiences took place in top-level universities: Southern California and Princeton in the USA, Politécnico Nacional in Mexico and the University of Puerto Rico.

In 1970, Guillermo joined the Department of Mathematics of Universidad del Valle. As teacher's representative, he took part in the massive mobilization of 1971: the movement’s archives still preserve his interventions in the professor's council and in the general assembly. The newbie professor confronted a convulsed conjuncture that definitely marked his life.

Since these years, Guillermo Restrepo Sierra became a true symbol of the University, of its democratic reserves and its struggles to build autonomy. In a complex context, among State terror and fragmentation of students’ organizations, there was only one professor who was respected and admired by the whole University community. How to explain this? The reasons were obvious: for years, Guillermo was the democratic guide of the Universidad del Valle. Through forums, assemblies, meetings and marches, professor Restrepo always was a reference for everyone: he was permanently ready to discuss, to teach and to build resistance.

Years ago, I knew him in the corridors of the University. Guillermo, a firm communist, was taking part in the heated discussions of the University, working without any prevention with a broad range of political afiliations: camilistas, maoists, anarchists. Surprisingly, he was respected by all the leaders of these political groupings, and also by trade union leaders and the University’s administration.

The lessons of his speeches and presentations keep imprinted in my memory: his admiration for the revolutionary priest Camilo Torres Restrepo, his theses on the relationship between the idea of communism and the philosophy of the first Christians, his deep respect for the Soviet people and the International Communist Movement and his insistence on linking social struggles and intellectual reflections.

Guillermo once gave us one of the best definitions of what a revolutionary party is. Describing the courageous struggles of the people of Stalingrad during the Nazi occupation, where civil population, communist militancy and Army officers victoriously resisted united, the professor said: “Party is the convergence of wills”.

Another day, a massive assembly were doing a political control to a University rector. An anarchist student took a lump of dog's excrement and left it on the rector's table. Guillermo, respectful as usual, stood up and personally took away the lump. For him, being a opposer didn't mean being irrespectful.

But the vital transcendence of Guillermo Restrepo Sierra goes beyond his political life. He was a remarkable mathematician whose contributions have revolutionized science in Colombia, particularly in the fields of differential equations and functional analysis. Also, he played a crucial role in the development of the Math Department of the Universidad del Valle and its specialized and advanced study programs.

But his marvelous efforts don't stop there. The Campus will bear the stamp of this pedagogue for many years. Many science students remember how Guillermo was always ready to help solving mathematical problems; any time, any place. His pedagogic capabilities allowed him to explain easily the most complex issues, sharing his knowledge without any selfishness. Entire generations of students are grateful for his lessons and recommendations in the most diverse fields of knowledge.

Finally, we should remember Guillermo's permanent support for a political solution to the Colombian conflict. As an organic intellectual, he always worked for the consolidation of an alternative to the longlasting Colombian war. During his last months, Guillermo raised his voice to defend the Havana peace process and to gain people for the possibility of a better future for our country. The achievement of peace, as a convergence of wills, will be his victory as well.

On a new International Workers Day it's important to remember and realize the complexity of the trade unions struggle in Colombia, and the urgency of international solidarity with Colombian working class and its union movement.

The massive and selective homicides perpetrated by far-right death squads and State agents, with direct complicity of national and foreign capitalists, jointly with the neoliberal legal reform on contracting, has dramatically transformed the rate of unionization of the country: in the 80's, the rate had remained near to 16%, but a recent study emphasizes that only 4,6% of workers are currently organized, one of the lowest within the continent`s average and an embarrassing number for Colombian “democracy”.

Some cases are particularly severe. Sinaltrainal -the main union of food industry that grouped workers from transnationals like Nestle, Coca-Cola and Kraft- has been victim of systematic persecution by paramilitares linked with economic groups. Since 1986 at least 26 Sinaltrainal leaders were killed in different cities of the country. The members of Fensuagro, the biggest peasant union in the country, have been subject of permanent stigmatization as alleged FARC-EP collaborators. Currently, Fensuagro’s vice-president, Huber Ballesteros, has completed more than two years in prison, accused of being an ally of the guerrilla. Even though international referents of the union movement as the British UNISON or the World Federation of Trade Unions have advocated for Huber's freedom, Colombian justice remains impassive.

Outsourcing and subcontracting have exponentially pauperized the working conditions of Colombians. Legal forms of contracting such as the “Associated Work Cooperatives” or the current “Temporary Services Firm” and “Simplified Stock Societies” are just euphemisms for covering up an unfair reality: more than the 50% of Colombian workers don’t have a direct and formal contract. In these conditions, having a union and fighting for better conditions is a utopia for the majority of the workers.

Nonetheless, the Colombian trade union movement keeps in first line of the popular struggle, fighting the struggles for social justice, democracy and peace. Thus, every single union member is a hero and small strikes are acts of enormous courage.

International workers solidarity is urgent. Now more than ever, workers of the world: unite!

Last April 15 was the 160th anniversary of the birth of a marvelous character, Avelino Rosas, who should be a symbol of national pride in Colombia.

This rebel from Cauca was a guerrilla fighter, merchant, pioneer, internationalist and the best sample of Colombian radical liberals of the XIX Century. Personal friend of enormous leaders in Latin America such as Antonio Maceo and Eloy Alfaro, volunteer combatant in the Independence War of Cuba and martyr for the freedom of Colombia, the name and legacy of Rosas is still unknown for most of his compatriots.

Avelino was born in Dolores, Cauca, Republic of Nueva Granada in 1856. He took part of a brilliant generation of young Caucans who joined the Liberal Party and embraced the ideals of freedom and Latin American unity. From his early days, our hero joined the military life in diverse experiences of radical liberal uprisings and civil wars.

In 1876, as a prominent soldier, he fought with the Liberal Army in the campaign of Cauca, the mythic battle of Los Chancos and the final campaign of Manizales.

After 1877, during a brief period of peace, Rosas became a merchant and established his residence and business in Cali. He was a pioneer of photography and an explorer of the Central Mountain Range. In parallel, he joined the Colombian Guard as sergeant and fought in the uprising against the government of the moderate Modesto Garcés, ascending to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

In 1885, Rosas fought with 400 combatants in Cauca against the government of Rafael Núñez, but was defeated by the central army. After the disarray of the radical faction of liberalism, Avelino started a conspiracy with his comrades from the whole country. Clandestinely, the heads of the radical liberals reunited in Bogotá on March 1887. Rosas was elected president of the undercover Liberal Board and began working in a new uprising plan, but the repression of the Núñez regime forced him to exile.

In 1890 Avelino Rosas was involved in the Venezuelan liberal overthrowing of the general Raimundo Andueza. His criticism towards the new president, Joaquín Crespo, took Rosas to a new exile in Curazao. From this island, a new radical liberal uprising is planned against the conservative government of Miguel Antonio Caro in Colombia, successor of Núñez. The new plan failed, increasing the discontent of Rosas whom was in the radical direction from the exile.

In October 1895, Avelino Rosas received in Curazao a letter from his friend, General Antonio Maceo, inviting him to join the Liberator Army of Cuba. Rosas arrived to Cuba on March 15th of 1896 as a brigadier general and under the command of Major General Calixto García. He was a faithful follower of the teachings of Maceo in the context of the irregular war.

By 1896 he was a prominent commander of the artillery batallion of Camagüey. As a division general, Rosas commanded the Matanzas campaign in 1897. In 1898 he fought the American occupation troops in Santiago. His courage earned him the name of “The Lion of Cauca” by the Cuban patriots. In 1898, having differences with the Cuban leadership and as an opponent to the American intervention, Avelino left Cuba with the aim of join the liberal guerrillas in the Colombian Thousand Days War.

Commanding cavalry troops, Rosas entered Colombia through the Venezuelan border and leaded a successful campaign from Casanare to Huila. In Támara he printed the first edition of the Maceo Code, the Cuban guerrilla warfare handbook. In Tolima, his troops were defeated and Rosas began a mythic odyssey as an undercover runaway. The conservatives captured him in Santa Rosa de Cabal, but he escaped in Buga with a group of war prisoners. Dressed up as an indigent, Rosas entered Cali, clandestinely reorganized a guerrilla group and began a military campaign in Pavas and San Juan River, moving towards the Pacific Coast. Defeated and isolated, he escaped by sea to Ecuador in 1901, where his friend general Eloy Alfaro was the new president.

Regrouping with other Colombian liberal exiles in Ecuador, Rosas planned a new incursion into Cauca to continue the guerrilla war, counting with the solidarity of the Alfaro government. By these days, his disagreements with higher ranked liberal rebels started, such as: Benjamín Herrera, Rafael Uribe Uribe and Gabriel Vargas Santos. Rosas argued for liberal irregular war, using the guerrilla warfare tactic, but the liberal direction insisted in a regular war.

Commanding a battalion of rebels, Rosas crossed the Colombian border in 1901 and started a military campaign in Ipiales. On September 20, his troops were defeated in Puerres by the fanatic conservative troops of the general Gustavo Guerrero. Avelino Rosas was killed defenseless and his corpse was shown in public by the reactionary forces.

During the Liberal Republic, in 1932, the hometown of The Lion of Cauca was renamed as Rosas. In 1957, the Cuban post service emitted a commemorative stamp in his honor. A recent historical novel by the Colombian writer Rafael Baena, “La guerra perdida del indio Lorenzo”, recreates the liberal uprising and the diffusion of the Maceo Code. Beyond this, the adventures and achievements of this rebel are still unknown. Our task, as a revolutionaries, is not let his memory die.

- An interesting article by Jaddiel Díaz on popular music in the XIX century Cuban troops, includes a curious photography of an Avelino Rosas camp in 1898: https://issuu.com/publicacionesfaciso/docs/revista_historia_critica_no_57

An interesting debate sparked recently about ethics in journalism and politics. The scenario is, again, Colombia, its conflict and peace talks.

The main actor, surprisingly, one of the most respected media in the world. And the hardcore idea, a fallacy about the FARC-EP.

Facts first: on April 16 The Economist, a serious and well-respected medium from London, published a weird and contradictory article on the FARC-EP, particularly, about the finances of the communist organization, described as enormous and ostentatious.

But where The Economist article turns kinky is on the very sources of the information. Literally, the newspaper explained:

“According to an unpublished study by government analysts, even after paying to maintain its fighters the FARC still had assets worth 33 trillion pesos ($10.5 billion) in 2012. (…) The cost of implementing any peace accord, which includes paying for demining and infrastructure, is likely to be $15 billion-30 billion over ten years. The FARC’s hidden fortune might pay for a big chunk of that.”

Comments to the above article piled up quickly. As the far-right wing of Colombian politics is strengthening its opposition to the Havana peace talks, this “serious” source of information fits like a glove. In the Álvaro Uribe narrative, this would be the confirmation of a weak administration - Juan Manuel Santos one- surrendering to the exigences of a “terrorist” and a “billionaire” organization, FARC-EP.

President Santos replied, preventing a major incidence of the article in national life. He denied the existence of reports from government analysts about FARC-EP finances, but confirmed that the Colombian state, jointly with Swiss, American and British intelligence corps, had been searching for FARC's money for the past ten years, without finding anything.

An unsuspecting reader could draw, at least, two possible conclusions out of this whole episode. The first, FARC-EP is an extremely disciplined organization as far as financing issues are concerned, capable of overcoming the joint vigilance of the Colombian state and international intelligence agencies. The second one, the Colombian government -and the international intelligence community- are astoundingly mediocre and stupid.

But the reality goes beyond this. The real difficulty behind tracking FARC-EP's international bank accounts and money-laundering networks is that in fact those accounts and networks do not exist. The FARC-EP are rebels, not mobsters. Our financing goes to struggle, not to personal enrichment.

The paradox of this public debate between a media and a president is, a part from the contradiction on information sources and cash amounts, the persistence of a lie: FARC-EP is, without any doubt, a group of billionaires. The aim seems to be similar to the argument of the old catholic catechist handling questions from the restless youngster about some mysterious dogma: “the Holy Mother Church has scholars for that”.

But at the current moment of the Colombian peace talks, a spectre is haunting the Conversation Table, the spectre of paramilitarismo. We are not talking about a minor issue. Currently, this matter is the main concern for delegates of both sides -FARC-EP and Colombian government- and for the social organizations that support the peace process.

For people who are not familiarized with Colombian political slang, in this Andean country the word “paramilitar” does not remit to civil security units like money transport or bank security, which is the way it is used in many countries. In Colombia, paramilitares are counter-insurgency death squads.

Colombian paramilitaries are an active part of the historical counter-insurgency strategy of the Military Forces since 1962. By then, an American mission of USA military officers, headed by General Yarborough, made high-level counter-insurgency recommendations to the Colombian High Command. One of these was the conformation and training of undercover groups commissioned for “doing the dirty job”: extrajudicial executions, selective killings and massacres, torturing and disappearing.

The phenomenon of paramilitarism has undergone many changes during Colombian history. These groups are responsible for the largest number of cases of political violence in recent years. During Álvaro Uribe’s mandate, the largest confederation of “paras”, the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (United Self-Defense Corps of Colombia, AUC), was demobilized in a polemic peace process where impunity reigned. After that, negationism about the persistence of the phenomenon has been a characteristic of the Colombian government.

In this way, the Uribe and Santos administrations continue ignoring that in Colombia death squads keep on killing social leaders, displacing peasants and threatening social organizations and left-wing parties.

But today the phenomenon is even more complex. Current death squads are divided in three major groups: The Urabeños or Úsuga Clan, self-denominated Gaitanistas Self-Defense Corps of Colombia; the Rastrojos or Popular and Peasant Patrols; and the Black Eagles. Their main activities are not only focused on counter-insurgency but also on “paraeconomía” (control of illegal economies -like mining and drug-trafficking- and legal ones like food commerce and transport), the “parapolítica” (the consolidation of political power in the local administrations of regions through corruption, clientelism and coercion) and a new systematic phenomenon: the threats against the process of lands restitution for displaced people.

Recent events confirm these claims. The past armed strike of Urabeños in Chocó, Sucre, Córdoba and Antioquia during the last week of past March achieved to paralyze an extensive area without receiving any strong answer from the State, proving the connivance with official Armed Forces. Curiously, the strike was the prelude for a national demonstration against the peace process convened by Álvaro Uribe, former president and current senator. This situation corresponds with a growing series of threats against human right defenders and selective murders of social activists like Maricela Tombé (peasant leader from Cauca), Klaus Zapata (Communist Youth militant from Soacha) and William Castillo (leader fom Guamocó).

The FARC-EP has insisted many times on it: peace is impossible while death squads keep on acting with impunity. The responsibility rests with the government: it will be a national tragedy to discard three years of talks and four partial agreements, just because the government is incapable of rooting out the phenomenon of paramilitarism.

In Colombia the phrase "politics is the art of swallowing toads" is very common.

Such a phrase aims to demonstrate the difficulties of such an exercise, because you can never do politics on the plan of simple desire, as you are always tied to contingencies and others unpleasantness to the taste of the individual or political group.

Toad, in Colombia, also means 'the informer, informant or who betrays his friends'. The above written fits perfectly with regard to a recent article in the website Pacifista, signed by journalist Lina Tono. In it, more or less, she tells the adventures of biologist John Douglas Lynch, a specialist in amphibians, who discovered in 1985 an endemic species of toad he named Atelopus farci.

The reasons, very personal, which led the biologist to give such scientific name to the species in question, are just that: personal reasons. What is clear in the article by Tono is that the relations Lynch had with the FARC-EP during his prolonged research are something else: from guerrillas who helped him being guides for him in his search for species, to unfortunate and unnecessary retentions, but never had they been marked by sympathy or collaboration.

Better to make the above clear, for the christening of Atelopus farci wool have meant for the professor bitter controversy. The national zoological community has expressed its disagreement with the name given to the animal, since the name of the toad corresponded to an alleged terrorist group and deeply offended victims of the FARC. It is noteworthy that science has established criteria for the "baptism" of animal and plant species, as well as bacteria and viruses.

Taxonomy establishes rules for the names to be given to new discoveries, following the structure of the Linnaean classification. Under this model, the discoverer may propose how to name his discovery. In this way, organizations, personalities, localities and even cultural manifestations may be immortalized in new species. Without going any further, the same professor Lynch "named" two amphibians Jorgevelosai Boyacenses and Carranguerorum, in tribute to Jorge Velosa and to the Andean music of eastern Colombia. Furthermore, recent entomological discoveries pay tribute to outstanding athletes of our country: a beetle living in Meta, has been named Oxyelitrum nairoi, in tribute to cyclist Nairo Quintana; and a jumping spider, has been named Maeota ibargueni, in tribute to athlete Catherine Ibarguen.

International celebrities have not escaped the world of taxonomy. For example, legendary rock singers like Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones Queen's Freddie Mercury have already been immortalized - the first in the tribolitesAegrotocatellus jaggeri, the second in the crustacean Cirolana mercuryi. Other cases border on the absurd: the Australian crab Albunea groeningi reminds us of Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, and a mushroom from Oceania - the Spongiforma squarepantsii- derives its name from its resemblance to the child character Sponge Bob.

The "baptism" of a political nature are obviously the most controversial.Thus, to name a few, we found the Agathidium bushi, a beetle reminding us to the conservative Bush family saga, of bitter memories in the Middle East; and a lichen -the Caloplaca obamae - celebrates the current president of the US. Perhaps the most controversial case turns out to be that of a blind beetle from Eastern Europe, discovered by a German scientist in 1936 and christened Anophtalmus hitleri, a tribute to Adolph Hitler. The insect's physical blindness and the military blindness of the dictator in the fall of the Reich, are a political metaphor without precedents.

Returning to the issue of the FARC's toad, Atelopus farci, the debate on its name and the role of Professor Lynch, denotes not only the extreme polarization of a country at war, but the immense backwardness we have on scientific and environmental conservation matters. The fact that an investigator with limited resources and difficult conditions, was able to discover an unknown species and emphasised the fact that these species are in danger, should be a source of joy for the nation and not a cause of isolation and stigmatisation. In that sense, the fact that the debate on the work of Lynch was over the name he gave to his toads and not about the difficulty of making science in Colombia, is a further sign of our misery as a country. And not only that, but also a clear sign of the lack of sense of humor that prevails: the "little toad of discord" belongs to the genus Atelopus - that is to the harlequins toads - and the Bufonidae family, literally, clown toads. In other words, the toad of the FARC, as well as toad - or informer, according to Colombian jargon - turned out to be a clown.

Therefore to accuse Lynch of being a Communist sympathizer is a considerable nonsense. If anything, he could be prosecuted for his excessive scientific sarcasm. Needless to emphasize that the Atelopus family is, like the FARC-EP, very Colombian. Not only because most of its members live in our country, being almost on the verge of physical disappearance, but because the farci is not the only one with a creole name. Cousins ​​of the FARC toad are the Atelopus quimbaya, the Atelopus guitarraensis - from Sumapaz-, the Atelopus monohernandezii - in tribute to Jorge Hernandez Camacho, well known zoologist from Bogota, the pastuso Atelopus, the muisca Atelopus, the Atelopus sonsonensis, the Atelopus chocoensis and, of course, as a tribute to the very Professor Lynch: the Atelopus lynchi.

The "frog of discord" opens the door to further discussion: to what extent is Colombian society ready as a whole to "swallow the toad" of an eventual Final Agreement? An allusion to the FARC can not become angry scientific protests nor can it spread doubts about academics.

At this point we totally agree with columnist Jorge Ivan Cuervo, who perhaps is at our ideological antipodes, when he noted in The Spectator:

"The polarization of the country is reflected in the climate of opinion. You are "uribista" or "anti-uribista"; or "anti-santista" or "santista fan"; or "petrista" or "anti-petrista" mafious-analyst; fascist or "leftish"; animal lover or animal murderer, or pro egalitarian cause or reactionary. There is no midpoint, there are no ideas or debate outside labels. (...) De-escalate, they say, buzzword that does not exist, but that shows the need to turn down the aggressive language, to recognise, in the dialectic contradiction, a legitimate interlocutor, to discuss ideas with respect, not ad hominem accusations suggesting personal issues such as basis of an argument. It is not easy to give this cultural leap. Extremism is comfortable because you don't have to argue or prove what you say. Speak loudly and label becomes the preferred method for those who have no good arguments. I do not know, the post-conflict would be something like this, been able to debate without insult or attack each other, and of course, without killing each other".

For now, we, the guerrillas of the FARC-EP, stand in solidarity with Professor John Douglas Lynch and against the stigmatization of his name.

And we hope that our little toad, like all his cousins ​​Atelopus, will be protected and saved of extinction.

In a previous article (in Spanish; NT) we referred to Brigadier General of the US Army William P. Yarborough and his impact on the Colombian conflict. Given the unfortunate consequences of his "assistence" - the longest conflict of the Western Hemisphere - it makes sense to review some aspects of his life that will shed light on Nortamerican militarism and its global impact.

Our character was born in Seattle in 1912 in a family of high-ranking officers with aristocratic origins going back to England. He graduated as a lieutenant of the Military Academy at West Point in 1936, joining the bodies of paratroopers deployed in the Philippines. In the Second World War and now with the rank of major, he led the US aerotrasportadas despliege on Algeria, France and Italy, standing out in the field and he was finally promoted to lieutenant colonel.

After the War, he participated in the design of the American strategy in Europe and was an adviser to what would become NATO. He worked on similar projects in Cambodia, where he began to familiarize himself with counterinsurgency issues. Between 1958 and 1960, he was chief of the US counterintelligence batallion in Stuttgart, West Germany.

In 1961, being a brigadier general, he was appointed commander of the newly established Special Warfare School at Fort Bragg, where he would play a key role in the design of tactical operability of the military forces during the most difficult years of the Cold War.

Yarbourough is recognized for having modernized the army and as the Father of the Green Berets, Special Forces units of counterinsurgency and covert overseas operations, to which he dedicated time and efforts, despite the resistance of several arms of the Armed Forces.

His close relationship with President John F. Kennedy allowed him to obtain the necessary leeway for his work and this way he got hold of the command of the special units that served in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Panama and, of course, Colombia.

According to Yarborough's viewpoint, the Special Forces (especially the infamous Mike Force) had to penetrate enemy territory, operate as mobile guerrillas and build armed anticommunist groups within the population. This was how they worked in Vietnam, where the Mike Force trained guerrillas made up of ethnic minorities who opposed the communists, and then use them in joint operations of regular and irregular forces.

Now we can understand his visit to Colombia in early 1962. The US general is the father of the paramilitary strategy that is causing havoc on the Colombian countryside, even before the uprising of the revolutionary guerrilla groups.

While he was still commander of Fort Bragg, Yarborough wrote in 1964 a curious article in the Chemistry magazine of the Armed Forces of the US. In it, he addressed the need to include chemical warfare in the arsenal of the counterinsurgency. He defended this thesis at all costs, graphically comparing the struggle against communism as the battle against a nest of insects who must be fumigated. The guerrillas, represented as some sort of aphids, have their own division of revolutionary work (murderers, tos en charge of sabotage, recruiters, spies, counterintelligence agents, informants and logistical support).

But the "fumigation" was not only military. The general stressed the need for the counterinsurgency forces to undertake propaganda work to win popularity "among workers and peasants". The classic "civic-military actions" he recommended to the Colombian army were part of his usual recipe against communist rebels.

Yarborough's career did not stop there. In just seven years he managed to promote from Brigadier General (1961) to lieutenant general (1968). After administrating the School of Fort Bragg, he served as senior researcher of guerrilla movements for the Pentagon's Special Operations unit; he was a field officer in Southeast Asia and in charge of operations and intelligence at the highest levels of the Pentagon.

He retired from active service in 1971 with high honors and decorations. In 1979 he published his only book "Bail Out Over North Africa", a collection of memoirs of his Algerian campaign in World War II.

He died in 2005 and was buried with honors in Arlington?s National Cemetery. In Fort Bragg there is a sculpture of Yarborough together with President Kennedy, with whom he spread modern imperialist counterinsurgency worldwide. His life takes account of the history of the US military forces and its global project.

The FARC-EP is not only an armed structure or a military organization. We are the merging of heterogeneous initiatives of popular struggle, active in different areas of Colombia.

The core is the People`s Army. Forty-eight peasants built in Marquetalia (a small colonization zone in Tolima, Central Colombia) the original nucleus of the resistance that gave rise to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in 1964. FARC-EP is the armed vanguard of the struggle, and is composed by men and women who voluntarily accepted military discipline and made a life-long commitment to the revolution.

FARC-EP guerrillas undertake offensive and defensive military actions in confrontation with State military forces and death squads ("paramilitares"). But they also carry out political activities with the civil population, as well as agricultural labor and works to improve the infrastructure in the areas, to the people's benefit.

But popular resistance doesn't stop here. The Colombian Clandestine Communist Party (PCCC by its Spanish acronym) is the political organization of FARC-EP. Every combatant is member of a PCCC revolutionary cell that meets regularly, provides political education and resolves the questions and proposals of the militants.

The PCCC is also the vanguard of the working class and peasant masses. Undercover cells of the Party work in different fields of the struggle, preserving the identity of the militants and the political structures because State terrorism works every day to infiltrate and annihilate it. You could say that any social space in Colombia where we can find struggle, we can also find a PCCC revolutionary cell doing its job.

People who want to support the FARC-EP struggle can also join the Bolivarian Militias, a political-military mass organization that leads undercover armed defense in communities and neighborhoods. Militiamen and militiawomen are ordinary people with military formation who are ready to defend its people against State and "paramilitares" at any moment.

Bolivarian Militia members also support military actions of FARC-EP guerrillas or carry out intelligence or logistical activities. Every squad of Militias is a PCCC revolutionary cell at the same time.

The broadest circle of mass influence is the Bolivarian Movement for the New Colombia (usually called MB). Founded 15 years ago in San Vicente del Caguán, the Movement is a patriotic alternative to the traditional parties. Proposed and led by the FARC-EP, MB is a space for any Colombian citizen who agrees with the Bolivarian Platform, a democratic manifesto of 12 points. It doesn't have statutes and any Colombian is free to join.

MB is a clandestine movement; its members don't perform public activities as MB militants. Their action is secret and undercover in social organizations, unions, professional associations, civic groups and any space of democratic vindication.

The combination of FARC-EP, PCCC, Bolivarian Militias and MB are the key to the Colombian revolution.

The Unión Patriótica - UP (Patriotic Union) is a Colombian political party created as a result of the peace dialogue between the FARC-EP and the Colombian government during the Belisario Betancur administration (1982-1986). The UP was the platform for transition of the guerrilla forces into an open political movement, in moments of truce and cease fire.

The UP was a proposal made by the FARC-EP for the democratic opening of the political spectrum. Build on a common platform of democracy and sovereignty, the UP was founded as a political front of heterogeneous forces in which FARC-EP cadres would be candidates or public spokespersons.

On February 28, 1985, the UP obtains its legal registration. The government assured that FARC-EP cadres could carry out their political campaign openly: hundreds of combatants assumed political tasks in cities and rural areas. In November 1985, more than 3.000 delegates participated in the First National Congress of the UP. Many political movements joined the FARC-EP initiative: the Colombian Communist Party (PCC), the Socialist Revolutionary Party (PSR, a Trotskyist movement), fractions of the traditional parties (Conservative and Liberal) and a large list of regional, ethnical, cultural and social movements.

The first presidential candidate for the UP was the guerrilla comandante Jacobo Arenas, but many plans of attempts against him were discovered and the leader desisted. He was substituted by Jaime Pardo Leal, founder of the trade union of judicial workers (Asonal Judicial) and PCC militant.

The first UP participation in election had unexpected results. The UP candidatures exceeded the historical participation of left wing parties in Colombian politics: 14 seats in parliament (including two guerrilla comandantes: Iván Márquez and Braulio Herrera), 13 regional deputies, 351 council members and 23 mayors. Jaime Pardo Leal reached 328.752 votes, a number never achieved by an alternative candidate, that is, not affiliated to the traditional parties.

Since the beginning, the UP was martyrized by paramilitary groups, the Police, the Army and powerful economic sectors, enemies of social change in Colombia. The UP tragedy is the most remarkable case of political genocide in the recent history of the Western hemisphere.

More than 5.000 militants and sympathizers were killed or disappeared, including senators, mayors and public spokespersons. Two presidential candidates were killed: Jaime Pardo Leal, on October 11, 1987, and Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa (labour lawyer and candidate for the 1990 elections), on March 22, 1990. On August 9, 1994 the communist journalist and UP senator, Manuel Cepeda Vargas, was killed in downtown Bogotá. Many cadres and militants had to leave the country, and many other joined the guerrillas to save their lives.

Using intimidation and physical elimination, the Colombian state closed the door of a FARC-EP transition to unarmed politics. Unión Patriótica was gradually losing political incidence. In 2002, the political party lost its legal registration: the voting results were under the minimum electoral threshold. UP activists played an important role as human rights defenders, fighting for the recognizing of the political genocide against Patriotic Union and for the construction of a historical memory of the victims. In many cases, the Colombian state was forced by international courts to recognize its responsibility in murder and disappearance of UP militants.

In July, 2013, the State Council recognized that it was unfair that the UP had lost its legal registration. Arguing that the voting decrease of the party was the result of a systematic extermination, the body decided to restore the registration. Many exiled militants of the UP returned to Colombia to reorganize the party and prepare the elections. For the 2014 parliamentary elections, none of the UP candidates was elected.

Aída Avella, former tradeunionist and UP councillor in Bogotá, exiled after an assassination attempt against her in 1996, returned to the country and was appointed presidential candidate for the UP. After large discussions between UP and the left party Polo Democrático Alternativo - PDA, they decided to unify their candidatures for presidency. The former PDA mayor of Bogotá, Clara López, was the main candidate, and Aída Avella would be vice-president. After the first electoral round, the UP-PDA coalition obtained 1.958.518 votes, the 4th place.

Today, UP is a political party of the left-wing field of Colombian politics. It stands for the unity of the left parties and for the political solution of the social and armed conflict.

Days go by, the World Cup comes closer and the system brings out again the most horrible aspects of football.

Businessmen, managers and star players are over-exposed in the media in this ?rock and roll? circus named football-business. Is anybody talking about technical innovations, tactical changes or new styles of playing? No. Is anybody highlighting those beautiful moves, that heroic sacrifice, that spectacular dribbling, the excellent performance of the goalkeeper? No. Absolutely nothing, a huge silence around the game itself and a lot of noise about what surrounds it. What we hear is: How much money is that player earning? Or which sheik bought which club? Or, have you seen the new Adidas shirt or the new Puma football shoes?

I have been a supporter for more than twenty years. Thanks to football I received my first baton strike, I learned to love my neighborhood and I reaffirmed my class consciousness. I've walked many roads, I've gone hungry many times, I've fought in the streets and I've supported unbearable heat because of the love for my team and for a game that's deeply ours: it is the sentiment of the streets, of the working class, of the people who fight and rise up.

That's why it hurts me that the game we fell in love with, the game that is a fundamental part of our lives, is getting more and more alien to our streets and neighborhoods each day. The capital, omnivorous and predatory, is devouring football and transforming it into something different to that old tradition brought to Colombia by the English workers of Magdalena Railway many years ago.

That's the reason why for many supporters the slogan "Against Modern Football" ("Odio Eterno al Fútbol Moderno" in the Spanish version) is not an empty phrase. This is why I want to share these little lessons I learned from football, perfectly applicable to revolutionary combat and to the daily work of those fighting for a new country.

1. You have to support it in good and bad times. Not only when your team thrashes the local enemies and there is time for taunts and humiliation, but also when that tiny and unknown team superbly defeats you and wastes your entire week.

2. Rain, blazing heat and hunger are insignificant things if it is about supporting your team. Complaining is for the poor in spirit. Accordingly, supporting your team under hail rain after a three-hour qeue with an empty stomach is just a test if you want to be counted amongst the essentials, the salt of the earth.

3. The referee represents the authority, the power and the State. Never sympathize with the referee, even if he makes a decision in favor of your team. Remember: you should never flirt with authority, my friend, it is perverse by nature.

4. There's nothing more despicable than someone who only supports a team for its good results. Guys who only enjoy victories that haven't been built with their support, are just opportunist people who only deserve rejection.

5. The blows are just that, blows. They serve to get ourselves together and make us stronger.

6. Victory requires preparation. Those who dislike hard working and only enjoy the moments of glory are opportunists. For this reason, you must appreciate the hard workers.

7. Don't to be too self-confident. The only allowed excess for the supporter is the excess of love for your team and your cause.

8. Always Maradona-style, never Pelé. There will never be a place in the home of the brave for Traitors and well-to-do.

9. Always Menotti-style, never Bilardo. Victory just to triumph isn't worth it. The goal has to be achieved with the conviction that the right thing is being done, that you're taking the correct route, not just for the goal.

10. Convenient route involves also convenient aesthetic. Both, the game and the revolution are aesthetic acts; just ask Bochini, Panenka, Sócrates, Cabañas or Higuita.

11. The moments in which mistakes are made are the most painful of all. But they stop being so when the tribune supports you with loyalty and camaraderie. These are the most important values in the world.